Given Arun Sarin’s global stature, one would’ve expected the former Vodafone chief executive to have his pick of Indian corporate boards to lend his presence to. The 61-year-old, who sits on the boards of corporate behemoths such as Cisco, Charles Schwab and Blackhawk Networks, and has served as a senior adviser to global asset manager KKR & Co, instead chose two Indian startups to mentor—taxi-hailing app Ola and music streaming company Saavn.

It is a sign of the times that the corporate heavyweight chose two Indian startups, which, while heavily backed by risk capital, have a long way to go before being able to post profits. Sarin not only signed on as an adviser in Ola and Saavn but also invested undisclosed amounts in both companies.

“It’s a huge trend. Everybody wants to be associated with a startup at this point, especially those that are changing the rules,” said Sunit Mehra, managing partner of Hunt Partners India, an executive search firm.

Leading Indian startups such as Flipkart, Paytm, Snapdeal and Urban Ladder attract big names from the corporate sector to advise and mentor them, as they scale at a dizzying pace and raise billions of dollars in funding.

While the Snapdeal founders—Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal—can count on Akhil Gupta, vice chairman of Bharti Enterprises and executive chairman of Bharti Infratel, as a sounding board, Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led Paytm recently brought Neeraj Arora, WhatsApp’s global business head, and Ruchi Sanghvi, former vice-president of operations at Dropbox, into the company as independent directors. “You cannot underestimate the effort it takes to find the right kind of advisers. It is like trying to find a cofounder or a partner,” said Ashish Goel, cofounder and chief executive of Urban Ladder.

“A large part of it is about getting the chemistry right.” That’s the kind of hands-on advising Gokul Rajaram likes to do. The former Google executive and head of product engineering at NYSE-listed payments technology company Square joined Livspace in July as a special adviser to help the online home design startup expand to new markets and build its technology.

“My interaction with the Livspace team goes well beyond my responsibility as an adviser,” said Rajaram, who also invested an undisclosed amount in the Helion- and Bessemer Venture Partners-backed startup. “We roll up our sleeves, work as peers, and problemsolve.” For many startup founders, the connect with some of biggest corporate and tech executives goes beyond having glittering names to onboarding people who can lend legitimacy to their nascent businesses. It’s more about the connections and advice on strategy that they can bring to the table.

“My role at (Saavn) is one of a senior adviser, leveraging what I’ve experienced in my life,” Sarin told ET in an earlier conversation. “On an as-needed basis, I will be helping with scaling the business, distribution of the product, organisational structure, and really anything that the management team feels they need help on.”

From entering new categories and geographies, to managing cash and investor relations, advisers bring decades worth of managerial and troubleshooting experience, critical for startup founders.

“The most important role is that of a coach. Startup founders often lack maturity when it comes to managing talent, capital or even the overall business,” said Mehra of Hunt Partners. Stories abound of the close relationship Gupta of Bharti Enterprises has with the Snapdeal founders, and the role the veteran has played in advising the duo, who are challenging larger rivals Flipkart and Amazon India for pole position in India’s exploding ecommerce industry.

“Akhil has been among the mostrespected Indian CFOs for 25 years now,” said Bahl, cofounder and chief executive of Snapdeal. “His expertise in the area of finance and governance is unmatched… Some of his insights that are now a part of our DNA are to not deviate from the core fundamentals of the business and to always watch costs closely.” Flipkart recently inducted Sudhir Sitapati, a top Unilever executive, as the first of a four-member advisory board for its commerce platform that it is creating to help manage and direct fast-paced growth at the seven-year-old company.

Sitapati, who oversees the tea, coffee and ice-cream categories in South Asia and Africa for Unilever, was sought out for his acumen in marketing and will act as a mentor and coach for Flipkart’s marketing team.

The need for top advisers, preferably those having invaluable experience in chartering their companies successfully during times of stress, assumes greater significance as Indian founders look to balance often prickly relationships with their boards that dominated by their financial advisers. “Investors will always look to their own interests. Advisers can act as an unbiased sounding board to the entrepreneur,” said Mehra.

The troubles related to SoftBankbacked Housing.com, which saw the relationship between its cofounder and chief executive Rahul Yadav and its board implode spectacularly earlier this year, is a case in point. “If I were a founder, I would want someone speaking on my behalf and looking out for my interests,” said Mehra.